Here for you
by InnocentSmile97
Summary: The Midnight Beast  band  fanfic - will soon be getting own TV show! Dru can tell something's not quite right with Ashley… But what? Dru is determined to find out. NOT SLASH. Only a few chapters. Little language. Anything bad is *** out. Ash/Dru friends
1. A place of comfort

**Chapter 1 – A place of comfort**

Clink, clink. The beer cans jingled as Ashley heaved the plastic Asda bags onto the kitchen unit.

Dru and Stefan glanced at the Living room doorway as Ashley entered.

"What beer did you get?" asked Stefan as he pummelled the buttons of his Wii remote.

"Fosters." Replied Ash, unenthusiastically. Dru stole another glance at his friend, but it was hard when he was also trying to avoid a flying shell in the Mario Kart race. But for the brief second he had just managed to register Ash's colour. Or rather, his lack of it.

Ashley squeezed himself onto the end of the sofa, next to Stef. Well, it wasn't really a sofa anymore; Dru and Stefan had flung all the cushions off it only to rearrange them into a kind of 'den'.

"Yeeeeeessssss!" yelled Stefan suddenly, springing up and out of the tiny den and doing a celebratory dance.

Dru rolled his eyes in minor irritation and looked at Ash. He had expected to see him guffawing at Stefan's stupid dance. He expected him to have a massive grin all over his face. He expected him to already be reaching for the remote, a challenging look on his face. But he was wrong. In fact, Ashley seemed to be staring into space, a slight frown on his unnaturally pale face.

This is definitely not normal… thought Dru.

"So, who's up for the challenge?" grinned Stefan, oblivious to the looks on his friend's faces.

"Ash?" said Dru questioningly, hoping to encourage him back into his normal competitive self.

"Hmmm?" Ashley seemed miles away. "Oh, right." He glanced at Dru's outstretched remote. "Yeah, ok."

Stefan slipped back into the den, ready for the next race, blocking Dru's view of Ashley. It was annoying as it meant Dru could no longer keep an eye on his friend.

"Who do you wanna be?" said Stefan as he selected the character Mario. "Baby Princess Peach?" he added with a chuckle.

"Yeah, ok."

For a second Dru wondered from the look on his face whether Stefan had noticed Ash's complete lack of banter. But he obviously hadn't as he just continued with the game and was soon biting his lip in concentration.

Dru picked up his almost empty beer can and threw his head back to slurp the remains of the alcohol. As he did this, he leaned back against the sofa back and realised he could just about see Ashley's profile.

Pale face… unenthusiastic… no competitiveness… staring into space… it was all wrong. And that annoyed Dru. He had always found it hard to sit there and watch someone silently suffer. One way or another Dru always managed to blame himself if he couldn't help. And now he was feeling more anxious about helping Ash with whatever it was.

That was the thing; he didn't even know what _it_ was let alone how to help! Dru sighed and stared at the TV screen, barely registering Stefan's winning and Ashley's losing. He thought as he half-watched.

When would Ashley be likely to open up? When he's most comfortable perhaps? So where is Ash comfortable? Making videos? Performing? At the pub? Dru chewed the inside of his cheek as all the possible options tumbled through his mind.

Stefan leaned forwards in his seat. He was so close now. There was no way Ashley could catch up with him! His eyes flickered to the race course map at the corner of the screen and dropped a banana for Donkey Kong for good measures.

He watched Mario speed over the finish line and turned gleefully to Ashley.

"Haha! Not so cocky now eh, Ash? Not now I've won again you mother f***ers!"

"Well done." muttered Ashley. It would've passed as believable if his voice hadn't been missing the sarcastic element.

"Hey, Stef, what are you planning on doing tonight?"

"Nothing much." He replied, turning to Dru. "Why, what are you thinking of?"

"Oh, just thinking that we haven't done a sleepover in a while. And, well, we're all here now, just restocked on beer, got nothing else to do… well, why not?"

Dru crossed his fingers behind his leg. He hoped that his plan would work. A mixture of sweets, alcohol and childish games should loosen Ash's tongue if not make him forget his worries.

"Yeah, cool! Let's do it! And you two can nip home quickly from here if you need anything anyway."

Dru grinned in relief but felt anxious again and he leaned forwards to look at Ash.

"Ash? You in?"

Yet again, Ashley hadn't been listening.

"Um, sorry?"

"Earth to Ashley…" sang Stefan in a high voice, waving his hands in front of Ashley's face.

"A sleepover. You in?" repeated Dru.

"What? Tonight?"

"No! In about 11 years!" said Dru, exasperated. He also thought he caught a glimpse of a shadow of a smile…

"Yeah, ok."

"Good. That's settled then."

"Yes… it is…" murmured Dru, his eyes still on Ashley's unsmiling and blank face. Then Stefan caught Dru's eye and they yelled together;

"THREE WAY SHAKE!"

~#~

Okay, so first The Midnight Beast fic... never written a fic about a band before so feedback would be great!


	2. Missing the opportunity

**Chapter 2 – Missing the opportunity**

Stefan's bedroom looked like a bombsite. More so than usual.

The brightly coloured curtains were closed as it was now quite late, so the light was on; the light shade having been whacked out of place at some point.

The desk was not only littered with pens and notebooks containing lyric ideas but also beer cans – the three of them had been attempting to throw the cans in the nearby bin, but their aim was obviously a little off.

A few posters and photographs had been knocked off Stefan's wall – the one that would've normally been plastered with cut-outs of a few celebrities Stefan liked, gig tickets, train tickets, a calendar, silly photographs of various friends, funny quotes and lyrics from good songs.

The cupboard door was wide open and it looked as though it had been thoroughly rummaged through (most likely for the stack of board games that were hidden away at the back).

The floor was barely visible under all the junk. Magazines were scattered everywhere, and not always as a whole. A few torn pages from 'Ok' and 'Hello!' magazine lay crumpled underneath the abandoned Twister mat. A Star Wars DVD box was lying near the door, just waiting to be trampled on. Predictably, a red toy light-saber was not far off.

Dru was lying on his back giggling at the ceiling. Stefan was in the process of undressing a Barbie doll. Ashley was curled in the corner hiccupping. All three squashed in together on top of the bed, which by now had lost its duvet, had an interesting stain on and sticky skittles all over it.

"TOP TRUMPS!" cried Stefan suddenly, chucking his doll in the air.

"Nooooo." groaned Dru. "We've played five rounds already!"

"Spin the bottle?"

"Dude, there are 3 of us."

"Seven minutes in heaven?"

"You seriously think I am getting in any cupboard with you for even a minute when you're drunk?"

"Hmm… well, I guess not after last time…" Stefan opened a packet of fizzy sherbet and tipped half of it into his mouth. He winced slightly as it exploded in his mouth. Then he smacked his lips loudly. And without any warning he let out a long belch.

"Errrrrrrr!" laughed Dru, although he wasn't that disgusted. Still, he gave Stefan a playful punch from where he lay.

Stefan swayed and grinned giddily. Then he spotted his superman pillow and yanked it out from underneath Ashley, who yelped and almost banged his head on the bed post. He lifted it up and brought it down heavily on an unsuspecting Dru.

"Oooff." gasped Dru as the pillow hit him. But then he grinned as he reached for another pillow. He scrabbled around the bed, getting to his knees. Stefan did the same.

"Its on." muttered Dru menacingly.

"You betcha." retorted Stefan, darkly as he pointed into his eyes then Dru's.

The two boys screamed their battle cries before unleashing hell on each other and hitting each other repeatedly while laughing.

It wasn't long before Stefan's alarm clock went flying.

Somehow, Ashley seemed to have been pulled from the end of the bed into the war zone.

"Arrrrrghhhh!" he cried as something white smothered him. He fell backwards off the bed and grabbed the nearest thing, taking it with him. This unfortunately happened to be Dru's ankle.

Seeing his mates flailing on the floor only meant one thing to Stefan; jump on them. So with a red Indian cry he pounced on the pair, the mattress springs groaning. He seized Dru's only weapon and chucked it across the room where it collided with the book case and brought down the whole Harry Potter series.

"Ok, ok, you win!" chuckled Dru in a muffled voice from where he was trapped under Stef and parts of Ash.

Stefan got up in triumph, did a few superhero poses, kissed his pillow and leapt back on the bed. Dru raised himself up slower. He patted his head and realised his hat was missing. He looked down and saw that he had also been lying on a melted Galaxy bar.

Resigned to looking like he'd done a very messy task on 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here', Dru looked to Ashley. At the start of the evening Ashley had looked just as shaky as when he'd walked into the living room but after practically force-feeding him a Crunchie bar and a whole can of beer, Ashley seemed to have forgotten whatever his worry was. He'd seemed almost normal. Well, if you count normal as shaking a pineapple and asking Spongebob if you can come in, which Dru did after being around these two for several years. After that slightly hyper hour when the three of them were literally bouncing off the walls, Ash had gone a bit whinny.

Right now Ashley was rocking backwards and forwards taking gulps from the wine bottle (yes, the bottle, not a glass) in-between the hiccups.

"C-c-com'on." Dru stood up (and wobbled a bit) then offered his hand to Ash to help him up. Ashley took it and collapsed onto the bed. He was mumbling something incoherent.

Dru listened carefully, trying to make out words. He couldn't remember why he needed to do that but he knew he had to. He tried to focus his eyes on Ash and pushed aside the distraction that was Stefan fitting as many marshmallows into his mouth as he could.

It took Dru a while to register but he eventually realised that Ashley seemed to be sobbing…

"D-d-don't hurt me!" he wailed "I-I-I just want to b-b-buy… please! T-t-take it all!"

"Ash?" Dru was shocked, even in this tipsy state. He'd never seen Ashley crying like this before… And yet, he could relate to it in a strange way.

Ashley was crying what looked to Dru like tears of desperation, confusion and fright. Something he'd done many years ago himself, in what he hoped was the darkest time of his life.

And the sight of Ashley clutching the bottle to his chest brought back many unwanted memories Dru had tried so hard to forget… He bit back tears of his own as he reached forwards in an attempt to place a comforting hand on Ashley's writhing body. But he didn't get very far.

Dru was tired, tipsy and having a sugar crash. And there was a fluffy pink pillow conveniently next to him (the one that was hidden at the back of Stefan's cupboard with the board games and only emerged at one of these sleepovers). Before Dru knew what had hit him his vision went blurry and his head lolled around before hitting the soft cushion.

The last thing he remembered was the sound of Stefan coughing up marshmallows and Ashley sobbing like a child.

~#~

In case you didn't get it Dru was thinking of his Father :'(

Hoped that was ok! Please please leave a comment!


	3. What really happened

**Chapter 3 – What really happened**

Dru was becoming slowly aware of something heavy on his back. He cautiously opened one eye. And quickly shut it. A small lither of sunlight had crept in through the curtains and Dru felt like it had burnt him. He groaned and lifted his heavy eye lids letting them adjust to the brightness.

He lay there for several minutes, staring at the cowboy hat hooked on the bedpost. Fuzzy memories of the night before were gradually coming back… Stefan with a pair of boxers on his head… Ashley doing a Gok Wan impression… someone licking his face… Stefan chocking on marshmallows… Ashley…

"Oh s***!" Ashley! The last thing he remembered of his friend was him wailing like a 2 year old!

He pushed himself up off the pillow and looked at his surroundings, head spinning slightly. He was still in Stefan's bedroom (what a relief) and still on the bed (what a surprise). Dru realised that he was half covered by a duvet which he was sure had been crumpled on the floor when he fell asleep. But with the use of his incredible powers of deduction, he worked out that Stefan must've pulled it up over himself when he went to bed.

His attention then moved to Stef. Curled like a baby, Stefan was under the other half of the duvet, almost completely covered. He was still wearing his colourful logo T-shirt but his trousers seemed to be missing. Fortunately, he still had on his neon yellow pants with 'WARNING' stamped across. None of the boys had bothered getting changed last night. Nor did Ash or Dru ever 'nip' home to get their stuff.

Dru's gaze shifted from his slumbering friend to the empty space of crinkled bed sheets. Ashley's space.

Dru cursed himself under his breath. Last night Ashley had needed him more than ever. And yet he hadn't been there for him. At the beginning of the night he'd promised himself – no promised their friendship – that he would stay sober in case he needed to pay attention to Ash's worries. But he hadn't managed even that. He'd let Ashley down and was kicking himself for it. It had been his chance to make sure Ash confided in him and for Dru to help him. Yet he'd thrown it out the window like he'd done with his goldfish.

He glanced frantically around for some sign that Ashley had not already gone home. He breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted Ashley's leather jacket hanging from the curtain pole (don't ask how it got there).

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed he stood up on some sticky Haribos. He started making his way to the door, except he hadn't quite got his balance and practically fell through it instead.

For some reason clutching the door frame for support had brought another vague image to mind. This time of him yelling through the window at next door neighbour's cat asking it why it had killed mufasa. Dru grinned to himself. If he had been anywhere else or with anyone else (i.e. hot girls) he would've been cringing right now. But he'd been with his brothers, so he didn't worry about making a fool of himself. After all, they made fools of themselves for a living!

Dru straightened himself up (although his back was stiff from an awkward sleeping position) and carried on down the hallway.

Just as he realised that he hadn't a clue where he was going, he spotted the slightly ajar bathroom door.

Dru crept up to it and poked one eye through the gap. Sure enough, Ashley was opposite the door at the sink, his head bowed. He looked up and Dru saw his tired face. Ash sighed and then locked eyes (or eye) with Dru in the mirror. He spun round.

"D-d-dru?"

Dru pushed open the bathroom door and walked in. From the lingering smell, Dru guessed that Ash had thrown up at some point.

"You alright?" he asked. Ashley stared at him for a moment.

"Yeah." He said, a little too brightly. Dru raised an eyebrow at him although this admittedly wasn't as effective as when Ashley did it.

"No." he groaned at last, putting his head between his hands on the bathroom unit.

Dru walked all the way over to Ashley and stood there. He had no idea what to do next. Comforting someone had never been his strong point.

"Look," he said awkwardly, "I can see you're upset… so… so would you like to talk about it?" he cringed at how silly his words sounded.

Ashley straightened up and turned to face his friend.

"You're going to think I'm a twat -"

"I already do."

"- but…"

~#~

Ashley turned left down the dirty side alley. It was his familiar short-cut from Stefan's house to the small Asda. With several coins jangling in his leather jacket pocket, he was armed for his mission of replenishing the beer stocks.

Ashley stuffed his hands into his skinny jeans pockets. He was feeling good today. The sun was shining (albeit not in this particular alley way), he had nothing but relaxing on his schedule and the prospect of returning to Dru and Stef to kick their buts at Mario Kart.

He was in fact so content that he failed to notice a group of dark figures looming up ahead of him. He only really saw them when he was not far off them. He thought nothing of it though. He'd been down this alley hundreds of times, so it was quite safe. Plus, he wasn't going to let himself be scared into running back home whimpering just because a bunch of guys were loitering.

Oozing confidence, Ashley prepared to stroll past them.

But as he got closer he felt a little less confident… Something in the way the loud banter and swearing had ceased made him feel slightly uncomfortable. The boys had got off their Adidas trakie clad bottoms and moved into the middle of the alley, blocking Ashley's way.

Oh well, thought Ashley, it's no big deal… I can just slip round the side…

But the hooded gang seemed to be staring at him; watching his every move like hawks.

Before he knew it, he was face-to-face with the biggest, hardest looking one – the 'top dog'.

"Well, whot do we 'ave 'ere then, eh?" It may have sounded friendly, if it weren't for the twisted smile just visible from beneath the dark hood.

Ashley opened his mouth, a witty comeback already ready, but the words just never came. He felt like he was stuck to the ground, every inch of him paralysed. No matter how confident he had been a few seconds ago, surrounded by a bunch of snarling faces, all of it had evaporated.

He desperately wanted to glance behind him but he resisted the urge for fear of revealing the panic that had slowly been building up inside of him. Besides, he could sense that the rest of the hoodie-wearing-followers had closed in. He was trapped.

The dark figure sneered at him a while longer. But then he seemed to decide that it was 'no more mister nice guy' and took a step closer to Ashley's frozen body. He was intimidating close.

"Gimme your phone."

"N-no." Ashley said, as assertively as he could.

"I said, gimme your phone."

"And… and I said NO."

The man glowered at him. He looked round at his 'followers' and as though he'd uttered some command, they all closed in further. Ashley gulped.

"Now, you listen t' me, funny eyebrow guy. Chu ain't wanna get in no trouble with us. Oh no. We could things t' ya that you couldn't even dream of." Slowly, he reached into his pocket and waved some object out so that Ashley could just about make out the outline. A knife. Ashley's breath hitched. "Yeah. Now ya get me. So. Gimme your f***ing phone."

Ashley didn't want to give this bully his shiny iPhone. But nor did he fancy the idea of being stabbed. (He'd heard plenty of horror stories about that from Stef and Dru to scare him off using his cutlery.)

But where words hadn't come before, they came now in a patronising form;

"Say please."

He knew instantly that he'd made a mistake. The gang muttered swear words and insults under their breaths. The leader pushed Ashley roughly with both hands, and as he caught him off guard, Ashley stumbled back a bit, the gang members behind him now pressing on him.

"Don't you DARE!" hissed the man, menacingly. "Did I not make my point clear enough? Maybe you didn't understand my threat. Do ya want me t' do a demonstration?"

"No." whispered Ashley.

"Well then… GIMME IT!"

A muscular arm whipped round Ashley's neck, not grasping him strong enough to suffocate him, but enough to scare the living daylight out of Ash. Rough hands from all directions began clawing at his jacket, his T-shirt and his jeans. At first Ashley attempted to batter them away but a restricted supply of oxygen was taking its toll.

Very quickly, however, a tobacco-stained hand reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out its prize – Ash's iPhone.

Upon seeing this, a gruff voice somewhere out of Ashley's blurry vision growled "let's move" and in a flash a heard of Nike high-top trainers fled from the scene. The man behind him hastily released him and threw him violently to the hard ground.

Sprawled on the ground, Ashley lay gasping for air.

~#~

Ooooh cliffhanger o_O I'm mean.

Well, that was longer that I thought it would be! And I actually cut it short and split it into 2 chapters (originaly this little fic would only be 3 chaps long...)

Oh, and I got the TMB book yesterday! Uh-mazing! Lurve it but it meant I saw piccies of Stefan's actual bedroom and it's nothing like what I describe. So yeah, this is all just my imagination - nothing is probably that accurate...


	4. I promise

**Chapter 4 – I promise**

"They did f***ing WHAT?" shouted Dru.

"Shhhhh!" pleaded Ashley, not wanting to wake the entire street.

Dru lowered his voice to a hoarse whisper.

"Those b****es are not taking anything from my boy and getting away with it! What did they look like?"

"Couldn't see much, black and red hoodie, trakies, high-tops -" Ashley stopped short. Dru had his hard and determined face on. And Ash knew exactly what Dru was planning on doing. "Oh, no, no you can't!"

"Why not?" said Dru indignantly, "I'm gonna show those pricks just I think of them!"

"NO!" said Ashley in a slightly shrill voice, "they'll use their… their…"

"Knife?"

Ashley's breath hitched again at the word. His mate's face was suddenly replaced with a flash of silver, followed by crimson, followed by black, followed by falling, followed by… Ashley groaned and clutched his head, bending over the sink again. He wasn't feeling very well either. Drinking nearly a whole bottle of wine had done nothing but upset his stomach and make him thirsty.

Dru stood there, fists clenched, fuming. So they all think they're hard, do they? Well, he'll show them. Ashley was his mate and no-one – repeat, NO-ONE – messes with his mates. Nor do they take their iPhones. Nor do they nearly strangle them to death. And nor do they leave them scarred for life.

If Dru had been left to his own devices, he would already be storming out the house (still in yesterday's clothes, not eaten breakfast and with breath like garlic) to find these bullies, despite not knowing who the hell they were or what they looked like. Still, he would've found them somehow and punched their sorry little faces in.

But the sight of Ashley looking down right petrified at the thought of Dru charging through the streets of London had made him think twice.

"I… I don't want to see you hurt…" Ashley's voice was barely above a whisper and it sounded like he was talking more to himself than to Dru. All the same, Dru heard.

All the anger ebbed away and Dru could clear his hung-over head enough to decide that no, he would not go gallivanting off after the lunatics who mugged Ash. Or at least, not when Ashley knew about it.

He placed a hand on Ashley's shaking shoulder. Ashley looked up at him. His eyes were sparking with tears. Dru panicked slightly at that. What should he say if Ash burst into tears again? Should he touch him or let him have his space? Should he listen or talk? Should he be deadly serious or try and make him laugh?

A bang came from the hallway. And that could only mean that Stefan was making the stupid attempt to get to the kitchen half-asleep. The bang must've been him walking into the wall. But the shuffling footsteps and occasional groan told Dru that Stefan had probably rebounded.

He turned back to Ashley, who now had his back to him.

"Ash?"

Dru turned Ashley around to face him again, as gently as he could. Glistening water droplets were falling from his red puffy eyes, down his smooth pale cheek.

"Oh, Ash…"

Something in Dru suddenly took over. It was a kind of instinct; a natural reaction. Maybe it was the sort that a mother has or a sibling or possibly a father has. Not that Dru really knew anything about the latter.

But whatever it was, it made Dru pull the younger boy very close and just hold him there. He didn't say anything or do anything else. Simply stood there, letting him weep into his chest.

A few moments past where the only noise was Stefan swearing from the kitchen. By the sound of it, the entire contents of the Coco Pops box and found its way to they floor.

Eventually the two boys parted from the warm embrace.

"Don't do anything stupid, Dru."

"I won't."

"Will you promise me that? Do you promise you won't get yourself into trouble?"

"Trouble? Me? Never!"

"I mean it, Dru!" exclaimed Ashley as earnestly as he could while concealing a small smile. "Do you promise?"

"Yes. I promise."

Ashley smiled meekly at Dru as he tried to dry his tears. Dru stepped forwards and used the sleeve of his T-shirt to wipe some of them away.

"What… what shall I do about my phone?" said Ashley as Dru attended to him.

"First off, don't say I, say _we_ and _we're_ going to tell Stefan -"

"Now?"

"No, of course not now you dick! He won't remember a bloody thing until past 1 o'clock today! But very soon. As soon as he's sober. As soon as we're all sober in fact. Can't have you imitating a hose pipe throughout it all. When he knows, and trust me, he deserves to, we'll both take you down to the police station where you can explain exactly what happened. Hopefully, they can catch these thugs and either get your phone back or tell us what the deal is on getting a new one. That's if I don't get in there first!" Ashley's ridiculous eyebrows shot upwards. "JOKE! Joking… And don't worry because you'll have me, and Stefan when we tell him, by your side the whole time."

Ashley nodded. It was going to be tough getting over this. The nightmares will probably haunt him for years. And yet he felt safer than he had done a few minutes ago. He hadn't necessarily planed on telling Dru and Stefan about this… incident… but he felt better now Dru knew. Dru, and Ashley was confident Stefan would too, have his back.

A smash and more cursing made Dru roll his eyes. He turned to the bathroom door, ready to rescue Stefan from causing anymore damage.

"Oh, and Dru!"

Dru glanced back at his friend.

"Thank you." And Ashley gave him an affectionate squeeze.

"Don't mention it. After all, we'll always be here for you."

~#~

The end.

N'aww bromance Well, I hope this little fic is alright! Soz it's only short... but I did have an idea for another one so if enough people want more... it may just happen... so yes, please do comment!


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